Google's Android is supposed to be open source, and like many times before, Google has repeatedly proven that it is not even close to being open source.

Not only does Google completely control the development and feature set of the Android operating system, but it also dictates who can be the part of its little club. This has been confirmed be a few sources.

If you are Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, Asus or Acer you have no issues getting Android 3.x or any future Android release, but if you are smaller player, Google simply doesn’t let you have anything better than Android 2.2, multiple sources confirmed.

Google also doesn’t let you sell Android 3.0 or higher tablets below a price dictated by Google, and this is one of the key reasons why Android 3.0 tablets are still quite expensive for most users. We still don’t know what happens to smaller tablet manufactures when Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich comes to market as this OS should combine phone and tablet platforms.

Will restrictions be relaxed? Even if the answer is yes, it won’t happen overnight as at Google, one partner has a special launch exclusive and treatment, something that you have seen with Nvidia and Tegra 2 invasion. Nvidia was reference partner for Android 3.0 and the rumour is that Google picked Texas Instrument for Ice Cream Sandwich.